Description Dominance Of Greco-Roman Culture

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independence do
so because they are strong, and that if we fail to
attack them it is because we are afraid.
The Athenian people were not directly threatened by the Melians and therefore had no practical reason to attack them. Their primary motivation was, obviously, to assert their dominance, their excellence, upon the Melian people. In his "Funeral Oration", Pericles declares the excellence of the Athenian people, "Taking everything together then, I declare that our city is an education to Greece, and I declare that in my opinion each single one of our citizens, in all the manifold aspects of life, is able to show himself the rightful lord and owner of his own person, and to do this with exceptional grace and exceptional versatility."
The overriding idea of arete, excellence in everything, also inspired Greek philosophers and artists. Sullivan states, "...the judgment of the Western tradition is that Greek culture was in fact the highest moment of the entire history of the ...

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